DOHA:India’s Shiva Thapa fought his heart out against Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan but still fell short in an draining contest to settle for a bronze medal at the World Boxing Championships here yesterday.
Shiva (56kg) lost 1-2 to Uzbekistan’s Asian silver-medallist Akhmadaliev in a closely-contested bout but remained in contention for an Olympic berth through the mega-event.
“I felt that I was the clear winner, it is always nice when you hear people saying that you should have won, but the reality is that I didn’t. I did my best in the competition and I am proud to represent my country here in Doha, I look forward to compete in the Olympics next year and will come back stronger,” Thapa said.
However, Thapa is still in the running for an Olympic spot as the losing semi-finalists will be fighting a box-off on October 15 to decide the last of the three slots in this category.
The 20-year-old Assam lad will face Dzmitry Asanau in the all-important contest after the Belarussian went down to third-seeded Irish Michael Conlan in his semi-final bout. Rogen Ladon of the Philippines had proved himself as a crowd favourite as he stepped into the ring to face the 2015 EUBC European Confederation Boxing Russian light flyweight Vasilii Egorov but unfortunately lost the bout convincingly with a unanimous decision.
In the men’s light welterweight semi-final and one of the most anticipated bouts of the day was world number one in the weight Cuban Yasniel Toledo. Toledo a fully formed as a world class fighter, stepped into the ring with Vitaly Dunaytsev the current European Confederation champion but it was Dunaystev who caused an upset and marched into the final.
Regional interest lay with Hosam Abdin in the men’s middleweight semi-finals representing Egypt. A crowd favourite with strong local fan base, took on the strong and powerful Cuban Arlen Lopez but despite a tremendous effort Abdin was defeated. Abdin said: “It was a great achievement for me to get to this stage, it was a very close fight and I felt I did all I could do against a very strong opponent.
Today another set of semi-finals begin from 7pm.
The Peninsula
